# English-to-Spanish translation: edificio vs instalación? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753 "2018-05-24T20:40:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/1 "2018-05-24T20:40:12Z")
Working on a form to help collect information about damaged facilities. Many of these facilities will be single-building facilities, but some will have separate buildings assembled on a campus (e.g. schools). Sample questions: [ul] [li]Nombre del \*\*edificio \*\*dañado (_Name of damaged facility_):[/li][li]Ubicación del \*\*edificio \*\*dañado (_Location of damaged facility_):[/li][li]Propósito principal del \*\*edificio \*\*dañado (_Primary purpose of damaged facility_):[/li][li]¿ **Instalación** crítica (_Critical facility_)?[/li][/ul] Trying to decide whether _edicifio_ or _instalación_ – or some other word – is a better fit on a data-collection form like this if the goal is to use a single term throughout … the way we can with English “facility”. _Edificio_ seems to be a term that’s very specific to a single building and won’t sound right for a multi-building campus. _Instalación_ seems to be too suggestive of power plants or factories – though I am not a native speaker by any means. The actual facilities on which we will be collecting information will chiefly be schools, maybe a community college, health clinics, elder-care homes, churches, and community centers. If it makes a difference on an “officialese” form … 90% of the form’s users will be from Puerto Rico, many from rural areas. A small number will be from the Dominican Republic and various Central American nations. Thanks in advance for any advice! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/2 "2018-05-24T21:02:10Z")
I would agree that there could be problems with both edificio and instalacion. I might suggest _sitio_ (site), if it’s not too vague. It’s pretty much the same as in English, and just refers to a general place or location. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/3 "2018-05-24T21:18:13Z")
I did find a site called [linguee.com](http://linguee.com) that seems to have a large corpus of texts that are already translated into many languages. English-Spanish texts are numerous. The good thing about [linguee.com](http://linguee.com) is that you can type in phrases, and it will return (a) existing online (I think?) text that matches what you’ve written, and (b) an existing translation of that same text. So, I punched in the phrase “ **facilities such as schools and hospitals** ” and here are two examples (from about 25) of the results: **… which puts them also in disadvantage in the treatment of facilities such as hospitals, schools, restaurants, etc.** _… los que supone también una desventaja en el tratamiento de instalaciones como hospitales, escuelas, restaurantes, etc._ **… and ensuring the security of facilities such as schools and hospitals.** \*… y la garantía de la seguridad de instalaciones como escuelas y hospitales. \* So, almost all of these results come back with _instalaciones_ – a few use _servicios_ in the same context. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/4 "2018-05-24T21:24:25Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I might suggest _sitio_ (site), if it’s not too vague. It’s pretty much the same as in English, and just refers to a general place or location. If terms like _sitio dañado_ and _sitio crítico_ makes sense in Spanish, and be understood to refer to various types of public facilities … sitio might work. Hmmm … since both words are masculine, how about terms like _sitio/edificio dañado_ or _sitio/edificio crítico_? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/5 "2018-05-25T07:48:45Z")
_Edificio_ is building. Right now I’m in the office building of a factory: _en el edificio de oficinas_. _Instalación_ normally refers to a specific group of machines with a specific and common function. The HVAC system:\* la instalación de aire acondicionado. Las instalaciones de la línea 1\*: production line 1 with all its machinery and attachments. _Sitio_ or _lugar_ can be smaller or larger than a building. It’s just a space, it can’t be critical. _¿En qué sitio te sientas?_ Where exactly is your desk? Several of those translations you found are from English to Spanish and done by people who are going word by word. They’re parallel translations; occasionally they may have put the adjectives in the right place, but that’s about it. No changes to punctuation except for perhaps the addition of opening marks in exclamations or questions, and these often have to be defended to a client who expects the translation to look exactly like the original. I would use _edificio_ or _instalación_ depending on the exact meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/6 "2018-05-25T07:56:08Z")
OOT: Using _edificio_ when it’s a group of buildings is not a problem, so long as the group has a name that can be provided or the answer can be free-form. If I was filling a maintenance report for a spot between this building and the labs, I’d be able to choose the code for “Factory 1234” from the list of codes and would indicate the exact location in the description. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/7 "2018-05-25T13:26:39Z")
Thank you both, **Nava** and **Colibri**! > [@Nava](#): > > … _Instalación_ normally refers to a specific group of machines with a specific and common function. The HVAC system: _la instalación de aire acondicionado. Las instalaciones de la línea 1_: production line 1 with all its machinery and attachments… > > Several of those translations you found are from English to Spanish and done by people who are going word by word. They’re parallel translations; occasionally they may have put the adjectives in the right place, but that’s about it. No changes to punctuation except for perhaps the addition of opening marks in exclamations or questions, and these often have to be defended to a client who expects the translation to look exactly like the original. > > I would use _edificio_ or _instalación_ depending on the exact meaning. Interestingly: for as much flack as Google Translate gets, it will never render _instalación_ as English “building”. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/8 "2018-05-25T14:22:47Z")
- side question: Have you, **Nava** and **Colibri** , ever come up with conflicting replies in the same thread because of local variants in your respective necks of the woods? \* ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/9 "2018-05-25T21:00:01Z")
Sometimes “local” can also be used in that context… of course depends on target audience ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-to-spanish-translation-edificio-vs-instalacion/814753/10 "2018-05-25T21:53:26Z")
Back in Puerto Rico, “instalaci(ón/ones)” is the standard usage for “facilities” as in structures+equipment+grounds in most written governmentese; when used in the generic abstract it is often seen in plural. Instalaciones médico-hospitalarias, instalaciones de transportación, instalaciones deportivas. “Estructura(s)” is used to mean edifications of all kinds from an antenna to a bridge to a high-rise, but with a connotation of specifically self-standing nonremovable physical objects and not counting contents. “Edificio(s)” does have here a connotation of being human-occupable and a secondary one of significant size so sonetines “edificaci(ón/ones)” is used to avoid that. “Conjunto de (estructuras/edificios)” is used to refer to a site with multiple edifications. Or you can also call it a complex (complejo) but that has a connotation of larger scale. “Local” indeed (as “el local” or “un local”) is used to mean the structure housing a business or other activity, in the sense of “the premises”. “Site” is a bit trickier, as “sitio” is used interchangeably with “lugar” to mean simply “place” and we say things like “construction zone” or “test area” rather than “site”.